Photo Credit: © Micronanopico via Wikimedia Commons. His achievements were celebrated in the book Longitude by Dava Sobell, which was adapted into a television drama with Michael Gambon portraying Harrison and Ian Hart, his son William.īlue plaque remembering John Harrison is located on the south side of 11 Red Lion Square, Holborn, London. His grave is in Saint John’s church in Hampstead, and there is a memorial to him in Westminster Abbey. John Harrison is remembered today with a blue plaque on the site of the house where he lived in Red Lion Square, London. This inability to achieve the proper positioning of ships led to the loss of countless lives at sea.
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Even a small gain or loss of time as a result of these changes could have drastic effects on the calculation of longitude, making an accurate positioning of the ship’s location effectively impossible. These would include variations in temperature, humidity, and pressure – all of which would affect the accuracy of any clock. Fascinated by the workings of clocks and watches from an early age, he was entirely self-taught and worked independently, devoting long hours to perfect the creation of an accurate timepiece that could withstand all the changes of a long sea voyage. John Harrison was born in Yorkshire in northern England but grew up mainly in Lincolnshire where his stepfather worked as a carpenter, a trade which he followed. Photo Credit: © Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. John Harrison English carpenter and clockmaker who invented the marine chronometer. John Harrison designed such a clock but was never fully rewarded for his efforts by the Admiralty. The British Parliament passed the Longitude Act of 1714, in which a reward of £20,000 (equivalent to over £3 million today) was offered for the creation of an accurate naval chronometer. Photo Credit: © Mike Peel via Wikimedia Commons.Īfter the Isles of Scilly incident and the loss of life involved, efforts were redoubled to improve navigation methods for British ships. Harrison H4 clockwork, at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. HMS Anne narrowly avoided being wrecked in what became the worst ever disaster in British naval history. The four ships that went down with their crews were HMS Association, HMS Romney, HMS Eagle, and HMS Firebrand. The fleet of ships that Shovell was commanding was unable to pinpoint its location accurately and was proceeding towards Britain when rocks were struck off the Isles of Scilly. Shovell became a popular hero in Britain and is buried at Westminster Abbey.
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Legend has it that he was washed up alive on the Isles of Scilly but was dispatched by a local woman who had seen a precious ring he was wearing and wanted it for herself.
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Records of the crews on Royal Naval ships were sketchy, and many men had been recruited onto them by the notorious press gangs who grabbed anyone they could find and forced them into manning ships of the line.Īmongst the dead was the Admiral of the Fleet, Sir Cloudesley Shovell, a distinguished sailor and Member of Parliament for the town of Rochester. At least 1400 sailors lost their lives as a result – and some estimates put the loss of life at 2,000. After the Scilly naval disaster of 1707, a victorious British fleet was returning from Spain only to be shipwrecked within sight of home due to inadequate navigational techniques the Admiralty offered a £20,000 prize to any clockmaker who could devise a reliable and accurate timepiece for use at sea.įour ships had been wrecked off the Isles of Scilly in the disaster on the night of 22nd October 1707. Navigators on ships needed to know the precise time in order to calculate their exact position at sea. The H4 may look like an oversized pocket watch, but its accuracy and reliability was responsible for saving the lives of many sailors. Photo Credit: © Phantom Photographer via Wikimedia Commons.Īlthough most visitors are more interested in seeing – and being photographed on – the Prime Meridian, it would not be there if it had not been for the efforts of John Harrison, a self-taught clockmaker who built this timepiece over five years in the middle of the eighteenth century. Harrison’s sea watch No.1 (H4), with a winding crank.